First, I
treated the girls to lunch. I know this is not extraordinary for most
people traveling out of the country, but I miscalculated and ended up not
bringing enough food for the girls and I to eat three home-cooked dinners
before the boys arrived with reinforcement food. Does it sound like we are
rationing while at war?

I admit
that I stole that gem from Tank. Once he arrived he wanted to ingest most
of the food that I had packed. Stuff I intended to last for several
days. He threw his arms in the air and hollered, 'WHAT ARE WE
DOING? WHY ARE WE RATIONING? ARE WE AT WAR?' Trust me
here. There was plenty AND I MEAN PLENTY for him to eat
- just not all at one sitting.

Two other
moms and their daughters were eating lunch out. We had just seen them at
the dancing venue where we bought our program and scoped out which room Curly
would dance in- basically we got acclimated. I started calculating our
lack of vitals, and thought lunch out was in order.

This was taken after I returned home. This is the Irish dancing stage area. That window overflows every few years in an extremely heavy rain. Fortunately we have been home and discovered it every time. The stage is surrounded my mirrors on the bottom half of the wall and cute photos from our 10 years of dancing - plus some oldies but goodies of me dancing. What you see here is the stage propped up and the stage's underbelly reflected in the mirror under the window. There is carpet in the basement and it is typically under the stage,but Coach pulled it back here. 6 weeks later and it still looks like we are waiting for a tsunami in our basement.

My stupid
phone only worked in WiFi, so we bolted back to our hotel so that we could place
a 'what's app' call to one of the moms staying at a different hotel and ask if
we could join them for lunch. I was not 100% I knew what restaurant they
were meeting at, so I needed to verify the details.

If you
ever want to see a Shenanigan family member move quickly - suggest a meal out
at a real restaurant. The girls were moving like their hair was on
fire. I feared suggesting a meal out WITH FRIENDS NO LESS, and then not
having the details to deliver on the promised land - I mean promised
meal. So I too ran back to the hotel at lightening speed. Call
placed, details shared, lunch with friends. Priceless.

Later
that night, Coach texted me while we were in the midst of our pre-dance
prep. Leg tanning - crazy, but true. Sticking Curly's hair in
little tiny pony tails while wet in order to be wig-ready (do not get me
started on putting a curly wig on a curly kid) in the morning. Seriously,
I embarrass myself by admitting to this goofy regiment.

Coach's
text: I tried to video chat you but it didn't work.

Here every bucket and garbage bin is positioned

to jump in and catch more water as needed. Itlooks like twice as many buckets, but there is a mirror on the wall. Mirror, mirror - will Coach fix the issue this time around?

Once our rituals were complete, I video called Coach so that Curly
could say good night.

Holy Hell. Reggie answered the phone.
Somewhat hysterical: 'Mommy, there's water EVERYWHERE!' Coach took
the phone from him. His shirt was off. He ran his fingers thru his
hair multiple times. I could see from the background that he was in the
basement. I heard things like, 'more towels, grab the bigger
bucket.' He sort of barked good night/good luck, after telling me that
the window well had overflowed into the basement.

It was an
oh-shit kind of video chat. Not at all the 'Good luck
Curly! We love you! Go get 'em!' kind of phone call I had
anticipated. It was unsettling, but I am not gonna lie. I was happy
to be in a luxury hotel having eaten at a nice restaurant. With a long
day of dancing ahead, I opted not to stress about a wet basement and I went to
bed.

Not to be confused with the who-the-Hell-keep calling-me video chat. That was when Eddie's phone was synching with mine and the college girl he was dating called and I was like 'who this?' Sorry- your comment reminded me of it.

Oh shit is right!! We have our own sort of water issues here, never flooding though....looks very MESSY! We're on a well and with all the systems/reverse osmosis, sometimes we run out of water and have to bathe in the pool. Kinda different from your water issues. 'WHAT ARE WE DOING? WHY ARE WE RATIONING? ARE WE AT WAR?' I think someone should be in drama club. ;)

It rained here last night - like 'time-to-build-an-arc' rain. Coach was a wreck. 'Should I put my bathing suit on now to be ready to get out there and bail the window well?' I was like 'so what's it gonna take for you to get this fixed?' I already had our very helpful plumber come out and give me his two cents. He believes the window well drain is packed with dirt and the window well needs to be dug up and a new drain installed. Not my domain, but Coach - just hire someone to fix it. Ugh.

About Me

Mothering 6 kids with no small feet, I trip thru life over their monster-sized mislaid shoes, their nutty antics, and my unhealed scars as a middle child. Life is messy - I'd rather write about it than clean it up.